Forum Replies Created
ashwoodDifferent adept schools are different ways of viewing reality. Two adept schools at the same time means automatic insanity. That’s canon.
Having two avatar skills at the same time would be like trying to tune a radio to two stations at the same time. I don’t think it would be possible, not to mention that the radio stations are aware of their listeners and might get upset that you are two-timing them.
I wrote up some House rules for Merchants to try to tone them down a bit if you are interested.
ashwoodAn adept is mainly limited by the number of charges he can get and by the basic structure of his magical school.
Formula spells are more efficient and more reliable than random magic but knowing a lot of spells isn’t unbalancing, so there is no reason to be stingy.
If the adept would use the spell fairly often during a normal year of his life, then give him the formula spell. If the adept has a good reason to want to know the spell, (like learning a blast spell “just in case”) then give it to him.
Just remember that having more than 14 formula spells makes it harder to cast random magic.
ashwoodZomburgist : The major charge seems too easy (do children count?). In places like Haiti there are lots of people who believe in zombies. For a major charge I would say you have to convince a large number of people that the zombie apocalypse is happening NOW! Like the old War of the Worlds broadcast panic, only with zombies. Or convince a policeman, fireman, etc that a zombie attack is happening to the extent that they actually call in to their superiors and state it as a fact. (no magic or unnatural creature can be used in either case)
Suggested Zomburgist effects: Resisting failed notches on their madness meter.
Predicting future disasters.
Scavenging unlikely objects, hot wiring cars, and picking locks to get into buildings.
Assuming leadership of a panicked group in an emergency.
Deducing the weakness of an unnatural creature. (you have to destroy the BRAIN!)
U.F.Omancer – not every school needs a blast that does damage. Give U.F.Omancer an abduction spell, the next time the target is unobserved (no video cameras or witnesses) they disappear for a number of minutes equal to the magick roll and show up in a random unobserved place within a few miles with no memory of what happened to them.
ashwoodI’ve made several versions of my house rules and I’ve tried to make this set as simple as possible while preventing abuses that would make the merchant avatar an easy road to perfect 100 stats or an army of slaves.
A small addition to the rules was needed to close a loophole, see below.
Health can’t be acquired piecemeal, only swapped. If one person has chicken pox and the second has the flu, a merchant can swap the diseases around, but he can’t make one person healthy and leave the second with both diseases. Also, fatal diseases like cancer are inextricably linked to a person’s lifespan. If you swap a fatal disease, lifespans are also swapped.
ashwoodAs with all things, the answer can be found in Wikipedia. Under the self-injure entry there are two psychological models. People who are overstressed and overwhelmed will cut themselves to feel in control. People who are feeling numb and disconnected will cut themselves to feel alive.
So, in response to your question, I would say that only epideromancers who fall under the second category would be able to charge up with a traffic accident.
ashwoodMak Attax is all about bringing magic to the masses, and one of their members (Harry Duopoulous) is described as obsessively happy-go-lucky.
Obsessions aren’t necessarily destructive or depressing. Take a look at the wiki entry on Furry fandom. It’s not too hard to imagine one of them making the move into personamancy. Are they obsessed? Sure, but they are obsessed because they enjoy it so much.
Enjoying your magick doesn’t have to take away from the horror feel of the game either. Consider the movie The Craft, four girls form a coven because it’s fun and cool, then things start getting out-of-control and scary.
ashwoodThe Plutomancer can order take-out.
The Pilgrim probably would be grateful, but how often is he going to have the free time to help you? Pilgrims tend to keep themselves busy.
As for the Epideromancer, if he is unconscious and seriously hurt, it might be a good idea for him to get medical attention. Besides, how could you make sure he is never put into a hospital anyway? Unless you bodyguard him 24/7, it would probably be more effective for him to buy a medical alert bracelet that says “Christian Scientist : I refuse all medical treatment”
Also, I think the taboo only applies if you willing allow someone to alter your body. Otherwise, you would lose all your mojo whenever someone alters your body by shooting you. Getting CPR wouldn’t cost you your charges because you are unconscious and unable to object.
ashwoodAnother change for Thin Mints:
This version of the fleshworker school can’t use Master of The Flesh which allows adepts to raise body and speed above 85 with magick. Instead they get The Body is a Temple for 2 sigs , which does significant blast damage to any demon (or other parasite) which is currently residing in a somebody else’s body (touch attack same as the normal blast).
ashwoodI’m still not really happy with it, getting enough charges to be useful would keep an anorexic fleshworker aka Thin Mints out of the game for long periods of time.
Anyway, I had a thought “a hunger strike wouldn’t be so bad if you could have the occasional snack break”. Anorexics don’t go without food, they go without enough food. So, forget the previous charging structure.
Thin Mints get charges by living on less than optimal amounts of food.
If you are underfed enough to get a -5% shift on all body skills, you pull in one minor charge every 3 days.
If you are underfed enough for -10% on all body skills, -5% on all other skills (except fleshworking) you pull in one sig a week.
If you are underfed enough to get -15% on body skills, -10% on all other skills (except fleshworking), you can pull in 1 sig every 3 days.
I takes 3 days of a new diet regiment for the skills shifts to kick in.
A major charge requires going entirely without food for 1 month.
In emergencies, thin mints can draw on their magickal reserves to ignore the hunger penalties on their skills. This uses up 2 minor charges for every action.
ashwoodOn second thought 5 days seems like a bit too much.
You go without food 4 days for the first significant charge, 3 days for the second, 2 days for the third, and get 1 sig per day after that.
The limiting factor on getting charges would be a cumulative -5% shift on all body skills for every three days you go without food. The negative shift goes away at the same rate, provided you can get all the food you need. Every week you go without food also does 2d wound points damage to your body , which doesn’t start healing until you start eating again.
ashwoodCould you give a few examples of low profile mundanes becoming top dogs?
Alex Abel started out as billionaire with hit squads, a top dog from the get go.
You also mentioned the Superconductor in a previous post as using connections instead of magick to be on top. It’s true that he doesn’t need mechanomacy for his role as the leader of Mak Attax, but he has something else that the starlet doesn’t have. He has a cause. The Maks do what he asks them to because they are all working a towards a common goal. “Let’s all get together to make me rich” isn’t going to get many converts.
Concerning the starlet not having an obsession: If you were camping in the woods, witnessed a U.F.O. land and little grey aliens walk around collecting samples of the local flora, wouldn’t you get a little obsessed about aliens?
The starlet is about to learn that her whole concept of reality is wrong. Magick is real, you can communicate with dead people, and the entire universe is going to be destroyed and reborn as soon as archetype number 333 ascends to the stratosphere.
ashwoodI think you are making too much of the rivalry between avatars. As long as you stick to the standard interpretation of the avatar and don’t seek the godwalker chair you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Peacemaker and healer avatars aren’t likely to come after you guns akimbo. Merchant avatars would probably be willing to make a deal instead of resorting to force, and necessary servant avatars are encouraged by there first channel to work together.
Rituals are dangerous to acquire, inflexible, and you have to watch out for booby-trapped fakes.
Guns bring too much trouble with the law, especially when she is semi-famous to start with. Only chaos mages and fleshworkers attract attention by face melting. Plutomancer = suicide. Urbanomancer = accident. Cliomancers, Videomancers, and Personamancers = nervous breakdown.
Useful artifacts are rare, very well guarded, and a big bull’s-eye on your back. Anyone rumored to possess a ring of eternal youth, isn’t going to have a very long life-span unless they have some serious mojo to defend themselves.
As for getting people to work for you, the question is going to be “What do you bring to the table?”. If I can start fires with my mind, why should I listen to some starlet trying to tell me what to do?
You might as well suggest she take over the local chapter of the Crips. She just doesn’t have the cash or street cred (occult or otherwise) to be taken seriously.
ashwoodWe are talking about a starlet, looking for a way to support herself without acting. I doubt she has the skills, connections, or the money needed to play the game without magick.
Guns and Magick :
If someone gets shot in the face and you are holding a gun, the cop is going to take you in. Especially if he was using magick to attack you instead of a physical weapon.
If someone’s face melts, you just scream “Oh My God!!! What’s Happening to Him???” and the cops won’t automatically connect you to the death.
Finally, like ritual magick, adepts and avatars can use guns as a bonus. Plutomancers can shoot you, then make you shoot yourself. Cliomancers and Avatars of the Fool can shoot you and make you shoot random people in the area. Chaos mages can shoot you and become 50% bullet proof.
ashwoodIt would be like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Also, she would be stuck with minor rituals only, unless she learns a charging ritual. And charging rituals are rare and jealously guarded.
Streetsamurai, channeling an avatar is sort of like acting, so you might want to go with an adept school instead.
A mechanomancer could probably do fairly well money wise. Build a few significant clockworks with the mechanic skill and have them restore classic automobiles for you to sell. Build a clockwork that looks like you and get it a couple undemanding jobs flipping burgers (no reason it shouldn’t work both the day and the night shift).